Pancreatic exocrine function in systemic sclerosis.

Lundh tests of pancreatic exocrine function were performed on twenty unselected patients with systemic sclerosis. Three patients had very low levels of tryptic activity in their intestinal juice and only nine had results which were unequivocally normal. Eight patients had biochemical steatorrhoea, but in six this was associated with intestinal bacterial overgrowth and a seventh had primary biliary cirrhosis. The remaining patient had no cause for steatorrhoea other than the marked pancreatic insufficiency which had been demonstrated. Although pancreatic damage may contribute to malabsorption in systemic sclerosis, it appears to be less important than other factors such as intestinal bacterial overgrowth.